An Unexpected Friendship
by Kristen3
Summary: Reluctantly babysitting for David, Alice Doyle finds herself bonding with her young charge. Perhaps they have more in common than she realizes. One-shot.


**Author's Note: **Thanks to Leigh Ann (**leighann415**) for giving me this idea, and reading parts of this. :) I just thought it would be fun to see Alice and David bond, since they're sort of the next generation of the Crane extended family.

Alice wasn't looking forward to this evening. While her friends would be out having fun, doing normal teenage girl things, she would be stuck babysitting. She would be paid, but not as much as most of her friends got when they babysat. But this wasn't a normal sitting job. No, Alice would be watching David Crane. Since the Cranes were practically family, Alice was simply expected to watch David whenever Aunt Daphne and Uncle Niles wanted a night out. Apparently Uncle Martin and his wife were busy tonight. Something about Ronee having a signing gig.

"Alice, come on. Let's go!" Roz called up the stairs to her daughter.

With a sigh, Alice came downstairs. "I'm all ready to go, Mom."

"All right, then. We don't want to keep Niles and Daphne waiting."

"Nope, we wouldn't want that," Alice muttered sarcastically.

Roz rolled her eyes, pretending she hadn't heard her daughter's comment. Selective hearing was an important part of raising a thirteen-year-old, she had learned.

Ten minutes later, Roz was ringing the bell at Niles and Daphne's apartment. Daphne answered the door, obviously dressed for an evening out. "Ah, Alice, you're right on time. David's upstairs doing his homework. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you."

"Whatever," Alice said with a shrug. She immediately felt her mother's elbow in her ribs. "I mean, I'm glad to see him, too, I think."

Roz and Daphne shared a glance. Alice had clearly grown up from the sweet, adorable little girl Daphne remembered. Hopefully this was just a phase, and Alice would outgrow it. For now, the best thing to do was simply ignore it. "Well, Niles and I won't be too late. You know where everything is. You and David are welcome to have anything you want in the fridge. Just don't let him stay up past his bedtime reading. Niles lets him get away with that sometimes, unfortunately." Daphne smiled.

"Right," Alice replied. Every time she came here to watch David, she got the same lecture. It wasn't like she'd never done this before.

Just then, Niles came down the stairs, carefully straightening his suit. "All set, my love?"

Daphne turned to him, smiling. She never got over how handsome he was, all dressed up. "Just about. Alice's here, right on time."

Niles nodded at the sitter. "We'll leave David in your capable hands."

"I'd better get going, too," Roz said. "Don't want to keep _my_ date waiting." She turned to her daughter. "You can call me if you need anything, but, um...try not to need anything, OK?"

"I'll be fine, Mom." Alice couldn't resist rolling her eyes.

Satisfied that the two children would be fine, the adults finally left. Alice let out a relieved sigh when the door closed. She started to go and sit down on the fainting couch, then figured she should at least check on the kid she was supposed to be watching. She headed up the stairs to his room.

When she arrived at his door, she was unsurprised to find it closed. She kept her own door closed most of the time, too. Her mom seemed to think nothing of barging into her room at any time. So much for giving a kid privacy. Alice knocked on the door.

"Come in!" David's voice answered.

Alice entered the room and found David lying on his bed, indeed doing his homework. His room was neat as a pin, a total contrast to the space Alice called her own. But, then, one would expect nothing less from Niles Crane's son. "Whatcha up to?"

David shrugged. "Math homework."

All Alice could do was nod. She'd never been great at math, but David was bright. No chance he'd be asking for her help. "Well, your parents and my mom just left. I'll be downstairs if you need anything, OK?"

"OK," David replied, returning his attention to the problem he was working on. Just as Alice began to leave the room, he spoke again. "I wish my dad wasn't so against sports," he sighed.

"At least you _have_ a dad," Alice muttered.

David looked up. He hadn't expected that response. "I guess I never thought of that."

"My mom's great and all, but it's just me and her. You've got a family."

"So do you," David replied. "My parents love you. My Uncle Frasier does, too."

"I guess," Alice said with a shrug. "Sure doesn't feel like it sometimes."

"Something on your mind? I'm listening." David grinned, using his uncle's famous radio slogan.

"Well, it's just that every time your parents go out, _I _get stuck babysitting you. No one ever asks me. I'm just told. It's not like I don't have better things to do."

"Like what?" David asked, rolling his eyes.

"Like hanging out with my friends. Kids my own age." It wasn't that David was a bad kid, but what thirteen-year-old girl wanted to hang out with an eight-year-old boy?

"You'd really rather hang out with a bunch of girls than spend an evening with me?" David asked. "Am I that horrible?"

"No, it's just -" But David cut her off.

"If your friends are anything like the girls I know, you're probably not missing that much."

Alice thought for a moment, remembering back to when she'd been David's age. Back then, she didn't know what to make of boys. Come to think of it, she still didn't understand them any better now. Sometimes they were OK, but at other times...it was all just so confusing! And then there were her friends. She liked them well enough, but sometimes her girlfriends could be catty. Maybe David was right. A night away from all of that drama wasn't so terrible. At least her mom wasn't here. It was nice to not have an adult watching her like a hawk all the time. Everyone knew that Roz had been a bit wild in her teenage years, and she seemed to be terrified that Alice would follow in her footsteps. Alice hated the constant questions about where she and her friends were going, and if any boys would be there. "Maybe being here isn't so bad. At least we get some time away from our parents, right?" Alice said with a laugh.

"Yeah," David agreed. "Grandpa's been taking me to a couple of baseball games. We cheer for the Mariners together. It's fun watching Grandpa get excited over every home run. But when I come home, and I try to tell Dad what we did, he's not interested."

"What about your mom, what does she say?" Alice asked. She found herself sitting on David's bed. Was she actually having a heart-to-heart with this kid?

David shrugged once again. "She says she's glad I get to spend time with Grandpa. You know, 'cause Freddy's so far away."

Alice nodded. "My mom's a pain sometimes, too. She's always asking me where I'm going, if I'm going to meet a boy. If I really wanted to sneak off and meet a boy, I would find a way. My mom should know that!"

"Do you want to go and meet a boy?" David asked.

"Not really," Alice shrugged. "I mean, I guess. But my mom has this idea that I'm going to be some wild teenager, because that's how she was."

"From what I've heard, your mom was pretty wild," David agreed. He'd heard his dad making jokes about Roz plenty of times.

"It's not like I don't know my mom dates. But it doesn't seem to be making her happy. Why would I want to do that?"

"Beats me. My mom says someday I'll find a girl that I love the way my dad loves her. But I can't imagine that. Have you seen the way my mom and dad look at each other? It's weird!"

"Yeah," Alice agreed. She'd noticed it too. This love stuff was clearly complicated. At thirteen, Alice considered herself pretty grown-up. But even she didn't understand it. So how would she ever make sense of it when she got older? "It feels kind of good to get this stuff off my chest. I mean, my friends all think it's so cool that my mom works at a radio station. They don't get what it's like to live with her!"

"Parents are always nicer to their kids' friends than to their kids." David had seen it with his parents, and his friends'.

"I guess we sort of get each other 'cause we're family," Alice said. "I mean, my mom always says that your family's the only family we have in Seattle."

"Yeah. My mom talks about how you were in their wedding, and Grandpa's. It's weird how your mom and my mom have been friends for so long."

Alice nodded. It might be strange, but she was grateful for it. Otherwise it would be just her and her mom. She didn't want to think what that would be like. "Yeah. But I'm glad they became friends. Without your mom, mine would be lost. All she ever does is work or date. Your mom's her only real friend."

David had never considered that. "My mom doesn't have many friends, either. She says Dad and I are all she really needs."

Alice was quiet for a moment. Often, when she and her mother disagreed, Alice felt like she was all alone. She had no father she could run to, and most of the time, her girlfriends were too busy with their own lives to listen to her. But, somehow, she'd found someone who finally understood what it was like to grow up in this family. Even if she and David had very little in common, they had this history that bonded them. Which meant they would probably always be a part of each other's lives. To her own surprise, Alice found she was OK with that. _Well, I guess maybe this babysitting thing isn't so bad_, she thought.

**The End**


End file.
